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Webster 1913 Edition


Episcopacy

E-pis′co-pa-cy

,
Noun.
[See
Episcopate
.]
Government of the church by bishops; church government by three distinct orders of ministers – bishops, priests, and deacons – of whom the bishops have an authority superior and of a different kind.

Webster 1828 Edition


Episcopacy

EPIS'COPACY

,
Noun.
[L. episcopatus; Gr. to inspect, to see. See Bishop.]
Government of the church by bishops; that form of ecclesiastical government, in which diocesan bishops are established, as distinct from and superior to priests or presbyters.

Definition 2024


episcopacy

episcopacy

English

Noun

episcopacy (plural episcopacies)

  1. Government of the church by bishops.
    • 2009, John Sadler, Glencoe, Amberley 2009, p. 16:
      Further religious division occurred during the post-Restoration decades in the reign of Charles II, when strenuous and violent efforts were made by the Government to impose an episcopacy on the Scottish Church.
  2. Bishops collectively; episcopate.

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